Mark Of The Lion—XXIII MINQAR QAIM: AN EXCITING FIELD OF GRIM CONFLICT

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29956, 18 October 1962, Page 10

Mark Of The Lion—XXIII MINQAR QAIM: AN EXCITING FIELD OF GRIM CONFLICT

New Zealanders ’ Resource Amid Difficulties (From “Mark ot the Lion" the biography of Captain Charles Upham. V.C. and Bar. bv KENNETH SANDFORD.] DOMMEL was to blame. Having been driven out of Cyrenaica **• in January, 1942, he had edged back to a position near Gazala and Bir Hachem, but then both sides had lain dormant for several months. On May 27 he struck fiercely.

Within eight weeks the Bth Army was decisively defeated, despite outnumbering Rommel’s forces almost two to one, despite numerical superiority in tanks and artillery. The German commander did it by concentrating superior forces against the isolated Allied groups that were thrown in piecemeal against him.

Over the mountains and down the valleys of Syria the New Zealand convoys roared out, through the orchards of Palestine, the sandwastes of Sinai, past Cairo, the Delta, and on to Mersa Matruh, far west of Alexandria. And as they moved into the desert they encountered the Bth Army in retreat, thousands of vehicles crowding the road as they all poured eastwards. Around Matruh the division spread out into defensive positions, and there waited for the enemy. But anxious that his division should not become a beleagured garrison force in Matruh, Freyberg urged that he should be given a more fluid role. This was done, and the division was ordered to hand over the defence of Matruh to other troops and to move south into the desert to the area of Minqar Qaim. There it was to operate as a mobile force to hold the low ridges in that region, and wherever possible to use its mobility to attack and delay the enemy.

9000 Mines To Be Laid While this move was in progress the 20th was given the task of guarding a party of New Zealand engineers who were laying 9000 mines in the path of Rommel’s advance. They would follow the division to Minqar Qaim later. The mines were to be laid on the site of an old minefield for which no plans existed. There would be risks, there might be casualties from the old mines. But this gap in the line had to be closed. The engineers, assisted by Indian troops, laid their mines. Protecting them sat the 20th, with Charles Upham tensioned like a spring in anticipation of the action that all knew was impending. He reconnoitred . quickly round his company area, with Leggy alongside. Then he started walking back to the group of slit trenches that were his temporary headquarters. “Hold on boss.” said Leggy. “This is where the old mines are, isn’t it? The sappers haven’t been over this yet. Let’s go back the way we came.” “You go if you like, Leggy. I want to get back quickly.” “But the ruddy mines . .. ?”

“Blast the mines! They’re old. Most of them will be duds by now. Anyway, the sappers have to risk it; why shouldn’t we? But you go on. Leggy. You go round the long way. I’m in a hurry.” Leggy swallowed hard. “It’s 0.K., boss, I’m coming.” And he paced warily alongside Upham, right across the old field, treading the ground with the delicacy of a ballet dancer. Attack By Stukas After helping with the mines the 20th rejoined the division at Minqar Qaim, but was almost immediately ordered to embus again and move northwards. As the men were climbing into the trucks, a drone came from the skies. Eyes turned upwards. Then a flare floated down. Charles was away from his company at that moment, but in the light of the flare he came racing back, shouting to his men to run for a wadi some yards away. They fled there as the bombs came tumbling down. More than 20 Stukas pounded the column. Upham and Sergeant Monteath of Battalion Intelligence found themselves diving for the same slit trench. Monteath won. “You young devil!” Charles

shouted good-humouredly, his face alight with the sharp drama of the dive-bombing attack.

But Monteath wondered why Upham was bothering about a slit trench, for the next second he was standing up, searching the wadi for his men, and shouting at the top of his voice for them to engage the planes with small-arms fire. Charles’s voice on the battlefield became high-pitched with excitement and carried great distance over the noise of firing and exploding bombs. Spending the night northwards of the division, the 20th returned to Minqar Qaim early on the morning of June 27. Everybody then dug in as well as they could amidst the hard rock and stones. Here now was almost the whole division, lying along the Minqar Qaim ridge, with its artillery and trucks hard by. The 4th Brigade, with the 20th, was out on the flat ground east of the main ridge.

Change In Command It was at this stage that the division leamt that the commander of the Bth Army had been relieved of his post and Auchinleck, Commander-in-Chief, Middle East, had assumed personal control. There were orders to make a stand in the Mersa Matruh area: orders to retire to Alamein; orders to retire but only after offering stubborn resistance. It is still a matter of doubt which orders were finally given to all formations. All that the New Zealand Division appreciated as dawn came on June 27 was that they were on an “island” in the desert, with few battleworthy troops near, and Rommel’s flood was about to pour upon them. At 7.30 that morning the 21st Panzer Division began its advance from its overnight positions. The German 90th Light Division moved ahead also. Within the hour the enemy had run against the spikes of the New Zealand Division sitting astride Minqar Qaim. Artillery on both sides opened the battle, the Kiwi 25-pounders effectively keeping at a distance a screen of tanks that ushered the panzers on to the battlefield.

More Ominous Signs

With the gunners running the battle so far, more ominous signs appeared at 10.30 a.m, when a patrol from the Maori Battalion sighted an ertemy column moving into position some three miles away. It was advancing on a front a mile wide, led by its tanks, behind them up to a thousand trucks laden with infantry. Almost leisurely its artillery came into action, then its mortars, while the New Zealanders answered in kind with a steady, watchful enthusiasm.

The exchange of highexplosive shells continued the rest of the morning, while the infantry in their slit trenches or stone sangars watched and waited. Towards midday it was apparent that a great mass of the enemy was passing across the north front of the division and there were signs that some of it was then turning southwards so as to cut off the New Zealanders from the east. By early afternoon Rommel had four armoured divisions in the Minqar Qaim area. The New Zealanders were obviously in for a warm time, but they wondered, as the day advanced, why the Germans were so reluctant to move in to the attack. It was a reluctance bom of knowledge that by nightfall they would have the New

Zealanders completely surrounded.

There had been a lull In the shelling, but about 2 o’clock the enemy guns broke into fresh life, followed by the mortars. Whereas earlier in the day the New Zealand guns had been the target, now the Germans began shelling the infantry positions as well. Charles Upham had one of the company’s three-ton trucks and had driven it from the escarpment down towards his company lines. He was sitting on the bonnet looking out over the desert. "Bob,” he called to C.S.M. May, who was near him. “There's a primus in the back. What about boiling up? I reckon we won’t have time later on.” May climbed into the back of the truck to get the primus. There was a sudden crash, the sound of breaking glass, and the truck gave a convulsive lurch. Bob May found himself leaping for safety out of the back of the truck. "What was it?” he asked. Upham, still sitting on the bonnet, said casually: “An eighty-eight went right through the back, out through the windscreen. But where the hell is that primus? Come on, get a move on, Bob.”

“Near Misses Don’t Hurt” May thought the two matters hardly compared in importance. He started towards the truck again. The next shot smashed the tail-board. “This is getting a bit hot. isn’t it?” he suggested. “We’re the target, I think.” Upham shrugged. "Near misses don’t hurt. . . . Come on. Bob, get that primus cracking or we won’t get a cup of tea before the damned show starts." But now tanks suddenly appeared through the dust, and all along the front German troop-carrying trucks came heading in. Here now came the attack—infantry jumping down, like ugly flowers suddenly sprouting all over the desert, mortars and machine-guns being mounted and beginning to fire. “Hold it! Hold it!” Upham was shouting, with his men itching to fire. They waited till the enemy trucks closed to a range of 400 yards; only then did the New Zealand infantry and anti-tank gunners open up. Out swarmed the Germans, racing for cover in the low desert scrub. They were good men, too, men of the Panzer Grenadiers. Like welltrained campaigners, they dropped swiftly to earth, began returning the New Zealand fire spiritedly. The clamour of battle rose quickly to a crescendo over the desert hills and flats of Minqar Qaim. The Kiwis clung tight to their slit trenches. If one merely put a hand up above ground level it felt as if the Germans were all firing at that. The whole battlefield seemed to be alight, the air thick with fire.

“Don’t Waste Your Ammo” And then, to the stupefaction of his company, there was Upham above ground, running from post to post in the open, “Don't waste your ammo!” he was shouting. "Ease up on it. Keep it till they come in!” And across the flat to the next group of slitties ... a few shouted words . . . then running on to the next. . . .

“Keep watching! You’ll never kill a German like that, son." he called to a new hand lying deep ip his trench with his face buried in the sand. And as he raced around.

from one section to another, the mortars seemed to follow him, and the small-arms fire tore at the stones around his feet.

’That’s Upham.” the gunner said to his mates as they rammed round after round of 25-pounder ammunition into the gun. They were firing over open sights now, at lowest trajectory, their shells screaming out straight over the heads of the C Company infantry. They could see that infantry officer running around the field right in fron; of their gun, crouching as he dashed through the haze of smoke, dust and fire.

“Blast him—he’ll cop one from us in a minute,” they complained.

Severe Pressure 0 Out on the exposed front a platoon thought the pressure was becoming too severe. They started singling out. falling back towards the main company position. Upham rushed over towards them.

“What the hell are you doing? How many casualties have you had?” They told him. “Hold on here!” he ordered. “Let me know when you have 30 per cent, casualties. Then I’ll see about it But we’ve got to stay put in this show. We mustn’t budge an inch.” Then he ran back across the sand to his other platoons. Runners were needed to take messages out to the front, across to companies on the flanks. Upham went himself, rather than ask his men to face the fire in the open. And if he saw one of his men unnecessarily exposed to the fire he sharply reprimanded him. “Keep your rump down, you fool. Do you want to sleep on your stomach the rest of your life?” He lashed at them with his tongue for taking risks. They in their turn looked on uncomprehendingly, as they saw him running backwards and forwards over the battlefield, apparently immune and unconcerned. (To Be Continued) (Copyright, 1982, Kenneth Sandford.)